Digging in KURLAND

Article about: And this is short documentary about how we dug out Grossdeutchland soldiers.

Re: Digging in KURLAND

Fascinating thread. What I also find very interesting are the WW1 finds. The spikes from helmets particularly interesting. Also it's poignant to realise how fought over the area was. Two wars.

As for the suggestion of grave robbing. I too had that uncharitable thought. However you can see from the pictures that most were close to the surface and as is rightly pointed out this is the point where an army capitulated in May 1945. Contemporary photos show German POWs curiously unadorned. Naturally they would have made sure there was nothing to single them out as special. So badges and awards would have been dumped. Also war is wasteful any contemporary picture of time shows equipment and uniforms dumped everywhere. This is true of any battlefield, in Vietnam particularly in the early days the VietCong virtually sustained themselves on food, equipment and even ordnance left behind by American troops.

What I find interesting about most of these badges etc is the fact of how personal they must have been. Each told a story, a wound badge, a combat badge, an Iron cross. There's a story to each item, now lost of course.
That's the real interest I have in these items.